What if
by john4096
Summary: At many points throughout the film, Mumble comes perilously close to death. These two stories are a short look at what it might have been like had he been less fortunate.


These are just two short alterations on two different points in the movie where Mumble comes fairly close to death. To be honest, Mumble is incredibly lucky to have survived to the end. I find it weird how obsessed I seem with his death, because he's probably my favourite character. Anyway, I've come to realize that, other than providing maybe some insight into what I think was going in the minds of certains characters, these stories really don't deviate that much from the movie. Still, here there are. Please review!

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**1. Fallen Angel**

As they came face to face, he stared into her deep brown eyes. Those perfect eyes.

"Gloria…"

"Hm?"

"All my life I've wanted to say: you're so—"

It had clearly taken Mumble a great deal of effort to speak to her. She could tell by the way that he wouldn't make eye contact that he was very unsure of himself. Gloria found it kind of cute, how shy he was.

But Gloria was distracted. Food had been very scarce lately and, looking around, she had spotted a sizeable cloud of fish to her left, not far off. "Fish?", schools this size were practically unheard of nowadays.

"—yeah, you're so fish", Mumble finished, not noticing that Gloria wasn't paying attention.

Gloria laughed, remembering herself, "No!" She pointed towards the school of fish just beyond the ice, "Fish!"

"FISH!"

Just like that all of the graduate penguins were darting off in every direction, each trying to claim a fish for his/herself before none were left. Mumble and Gloria frantically joined the hunt, separating from each other in desperation.

Mumble tried as best he could to reach the fish before his peers, but his baby feathers slowed him down in the water. He watched as the cloud was thinned, one by one. Just when he thought they had all been caught, a straggler swam past, inches from his beak. He quickly speared it on his tongue. Ecstatic at his good fortune, he made his way back to Gloria.

"You got one?", he asked, overjoyed at this minor success in a sea of failures.

As she turned looked at him, Mumble saw that Gloria's beak was empty.

"Nope, not this time". She looked tired and hungry. No one had been eating well lately.

Mumble felt bad for her. Who knew how long it would be before the next time they were this lucky?

"You have it", he offered.

"Thank you Mumble, but its yours." Gloria didn't want to take from someone who had always had so little.

"But I want you to have it", he persisted.

She began to get a little frustrated. Her anger fueled, no doubt, by her intense hunger. She shook her head, "You caught it, you eat it."

"But I want _you_ to have—"

Just then Mumble was ripped from the water. A skua, seizing the opportunity, had made a grab for the fish. Mumble clamped his beak shut, holding the fish tightly as he was lifted into the air.

"Skua!", Gloria yelled, before giving chase. As she swam after Mumble, she jumped out of the water periodically in order to watch the drama unfold. Two more skuas joined the scuffle, carrying Mumble higher and higher into the air.

"Mumble! Let go!", she yelled, fearing for his safety. Still, he held on. He was getting dangerously high. "Mumble! Let go!".

She watched helplessly as the fight intensified. Mumble was at a dizzying height now and Gloria began to panic a little. Mumble began to sway wildly as the skuas circled, each trying to tear the fish free. Then, all too suddenly, he fell.

Gloria could hardly bear to watch as his body plummeted towards the ground, gaining speed. As he approached the earth, his head smashed into a column of ice jutting into the sky. Even from her vantage point quite a ways away, Gloria could see drops of blood spattering in every direction. She looked away in horror.

Mumble fell further still before coming to rest on an icy slope. His flippers were sprawled out at his sides and a small trickle of blood streamed from his head. Gloria leapt from the water and quickly made her way towards him. The murmurs of onlookers reached her ears as though through a thick haze, and only intensified her fear.

"Is he breathing?"

"He's certainly not eating"

"I think he's bleeding!"

"Mumble! Are you okay?" Gloria yelled, out of breath. She continued to close the gap between them, pushing her way through the bystanders. When she was much closer, she tried again.

"Mumble?"

No reply; he wasn't moving. She tried to catch a glimpse of his chest, rising and falling as he breathed, but Mumble remained still. She looked down at his face. His eyes were partially open, those cold blue spheres staring back at her—unfocused, unblinking. Gloria began to feel tears well up at the corners of her eyes. She stood there, bearing the tragedy alone, the few onlookers having left silently, uninterested. He was gone forever…and no one cared.

She began to cry in earnest. Who knows how long she remained at his side, mourning the loss of her fluffy, tap dancing friend. Finally, when she felt she could look no longer, she took one last glimpse of the penguin she had known and loved since birth. Before she turned away, her gaze fell to his beak, still slightly ajar, held open by a badly torn fish.

That stupid fish.

**2. One story too many**

They stood atop a tall, sheer cliff of ice, staring out over the ocean as the sun began to set. Five or six of the strange, alien machines drifted away from them. It was at this moment that the true gravity of the situation struck them.

"Woah, a whole bunch of them", Rinaldo exclaimed.

"They gonna rule the world", Raul added in awe.

Mumble wasn't listening. He was slowly thinking things over in his head. He had lost everything: the love of his life, the respect of his father, the right to live amongst his colony…now it was all in vain. He had promised to find out what was happening to the fish—and so he had—but to what end? So he could return to his colony? Prove that he was right and they were wrong? Starve to death with his family and friends?

No. That would not do.

Ramon was speaking to him now, but he was still too pre-occupied to listen. He looked over the edge of the cliff, judging the distance to the water. No, it was definitely too high. No matter, he would descend and then give chase.

But how long would that take? What if the machines were already gone from his sight? What if the amigos managed to talk him out of it? What if, after giving it more thought, he found it impossible to muster the strength to continue?

There would be no discussion. He looked out over the cliff again. It still seemed too high, but then again…what did he have left to lose?

"Can I ask a favor of you?", he asked, surprised by the determination in his voice.

"Sure!" the amigos replied.

"What kind of favor?", Ramon asked, suspicious.

"Can you make sure that Gloria's okay? And my ma?". The amigos gasped, looking confused. Mumble continued, "And if you see pa, tell him…". Mumble's eyes began to water as he thought of his father. Nothing he could do would ever be good enough for him. He was a freak. His father didn't want to be associated with his abnormality of a son. "Tell him…I tried".

"Alright, what you talking about?" Nestor demanded.

"I'm going to stop them from taking our fish!", Mumble replied with force, his feet starting to tap uncontrollably as adrenaline pumped through his veins.

"How you gonna do that, Mumble?" Rinaldo asked in disbelief.

Mumble didn't answer. Wasting no more time, he ran for the edge of the cliff and jumped out into the sky. "Adios, amigos!" he yelled behind him as he plummeted towards the water.

"No! He didn't!", Lombardo exclaimed.

Lovelace and the Adelie penguins watched in helpless terror as Mumble fell towards the icy water below. After what felt like hours, a small splash rose from the thrashing ocean.

"Madre mia!" Nestor cried, "Do you believe that?"

"How we gonna tell his mama he take us all this way _just to kill himself!_" Ramon yelled hysterically. The amigos were thunderstruck.

They waited. Waited for some sign of life or movement below. Surely he will surface in a few seconds…any minute now…before the hour is up.

Though they waited long after the sun had passed below the horizon, they knew from the second Mumble had thrown himself into the open air that they would not be seeing him again.


End file.
